'Person of Interest' recap: The Undead

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There’s a reason that the preview at the end of last week’s episode was incomprehensible: Stretched over an hour, this episode was nearly as difficult to understand. But I’ll do my best. At the beginning of the episode, JC saves an adulterer whose wife has paid some hitmen to take him out. He does this by killing the two hitmen. I’m not quite sure two deaths to save a cheater is worth the effort, but this is Finch’s formula, not mine. But that guy’s not the person whose number is coming up this episode. Said person is a fifteen-year-old girl named Theresa. The only catch? She died two years ago, along with her entire family. Finch and JC even visit the family gravesite. They track down Theresa’s aunt, who wonders if the cops are still looking for Theresa’s body, which was never found. Since their relatives were killed, Theresa and her husband, Derek, have divorced. She says she doesn’t know how to reach him, but has an old cell phone number.

JC comes across Theresa a time or two — and ends up with a pretty severe cut after the first time — thanks to a boyfriend she’s stayed in touch with after “death.” She’s almost as good at disappearing as JC himself, though, so she keeps slipping away from him. Finally, he saves her life enough times to earn her trust. Finch (who’s thankfully outside the office this episode) ends up as her babysitter in a hotel room while JC tries to track down who is coming after her and why. They pinpoint the uncle, Derek, but after spending some time with him JC learns the truth: Theresa’s father bought a piece of land that he figured would be worth a lot of money once the government got it cleaned up. His business partner arranged to have the whole family killed, but kept Derek around as the heir the land would go to after it went through probate. Derek says it’s the only reason he’s alive. JC quickly deduces this is why they’re after Theresa: The land is worth a fortune now, and she’s the rightful heir. He relays the message to Finch, who’s talked Theresa into trusting him by this point. But the bad guy her dad’s former business partner’s hired to come after her ends up tracking down her aunt, then her uncle. When he taps the aunt’s phone, and Theresa calls her and hangs up, he traces the call to the hotel, and shows up to kill her. She and Finch pull a bait and switch and barely escape getting killed about fifty times in a matter of seconds. When they’re finally backed into a corner, JC shows up just in the nick of time (he’s good at that), and shoots the guy.

Carter’s still after JC the entire episode (it seems she has no other police work going on, because she shows up at every crime scene just to see if he’s involved – or at least I assume she must since she ends up at all the ones he actually is involved in, and she can’t be that good of a guesser). He finally calls her after stopping this week’s future crime, and arranges a meet. She shows up with plenty of backup, but he’s sent Theresa instead. Theresa tells her that her friends said she could trust her. And, of course, she can; but she’s going to have to deal with A LOT of probing questions about JC. This girl’s used to running, hiding, and lying, though, so Carter’s getting nothing out of her. Her dad’s former business partner ends up arrested, too, so all is right with the world.